Rate of AMD similar among Japanese and Caucasians A new study has found that the prevalence of late AMD is similar in Caucasian and Asian populations.

When AMD risk levels among racial and ethnic groups are compared, Caucasians are usually identified as at highest risk. Asians in particular have been assumed to have lower risk.

A new study published in the August 2008 edition if the journal Ophthalmology by Ryo Kawasaki and colleagues compared the prevalence of early and late AMD in approximately 4,000 residents of Funagata, Japan, to the rate in white participants in the Australian Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES). Diagnostic definitions were identical in the two studies and age standardization enhanced data comparability. Importantly, the Funagata study is the first in a Japanese population to confirm a link between smoking and AMD prevalence.

The overall AMD prevalence rate in right eyes was 4.1 percent for the Funagata study, very close to the BMES rate of 4.4.percent. Prevalence of late AMD in men was also comparable for the two groups, 1.1 percent for Funagata participants and 1.2 percent for BMES, but was markedly different for the two groups of women: 0.3 percent for Japanese women and 2.1 percent for Caucasian women.

The authors think a key reason for the difference in prevalence of AMD between Funagata men and women may be that 36.8 percent of the men smoked, but only 2.8 percent of the women. In the BMES study, 14.4 percent of women were smokers. While many Asian men smoke, the habit is less socially acceptable for women. "As smoking is a well-recognized, modifiable AMD risk factor, smoking cessation is an important public health measure to reduce AMD, particularly among Japanese men," Dr. Kawasaki says.

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